Washington's scrutiny of Silicon Valley ramped up substantially last year, culminating in Google CEO Sundar Pichai's 3.5 hour command performance before the House Judiciary Committee in December. Members expressed concern about a range of issues, including privacy, potential political bias, and whether the company was planning on introducing a censored search product in China.
Facebook has also drawn public ire, most recently for sharing its data with advertising customers and for researching the motivations of the company's critics. Members of Congress, whose campaigns likely use Facebook's various tracking and targeting tools, are, to paraphrase the famous line from Casablanca, shocked — shocked — to find that Facebook uses data to make money.
Read Full Article »